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Edwardes regiment now moved to Sabathu, where he began a series of papers in a local journal, the ‘Delhi Gazette,’ which, under the title of ‘Letters of Brahminee Bull in India to his cousin John in England,’ attracted a good deal of attention among the Anglo-Indian community. Henry Lawrence, then British resident at the court of Khatmandu, was especially struck with the bold political opinions and clear high-spirited style of the young subaltern; and Sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief of the Indian army, with a sagacity not always shown in such cases, selected Edwardes as a member of his personal staff. The headquarters shortly afterwards taking the field for the first Punjab campaign, Edwardes was present as an aide-de-camp to Sir Hugh at the bloody fights of Moodkee and Sobraon.

On the conclusion of the war he obtained his first civil employment. Henry Lawrence was posted at Lahore as resident British minister with the durbar, or council of regency, and in that capacity undertook the task, generous if premature, of teaching the races of the Punjab the art of self-government. Edwardes was made one of Lawrence's assistants on the request of the latter, and was deputed to carry out the undertaking in one of the outlying districts. It was early in 1847 when Edwardes began the reform of civil administration in Bunnoo (Banu, as now spelt by the Indian government), a trans-Indus valley bordering on the territory of the Afghans and mainly peopled by tribes connected with that nation. Backed by a small handy force of Sikh soldiers, he soon made his mark. The numerous fortresses scattered about the valley were demolished, roads were made, canals excavated, local feuds appeased. Fortunate so far, no doubt the young district officer owed as much to his own qualities as to opportunity; and his personal influence was soon acknowledged universally among the rough and wild, but simple, population. Similar victories of peace were at the same time being won by Abbott in Hazára, by Lumsden in the Yusafzai country, and by John Nicholson at Ráwal Pindi. But the well-spring whence this knot of remarkable men derived their inspiration was undoubtedly Lawrence, and that spring was to be closed, for the moment, by his departure for Europe. His substitute was no match for Asiatic craft and intrigue. In April 1848 the unhappy mission of Patrick Alexander Vans Agnew [q. v.]] and Anderson to Multan, ending in the murder of those two officers, by the orders or connivance of Mulraj, fired latent elements of combustion. Edwardes at once grappled with the conflagration. Spontaneously, without British aid or companionship, at first without either money or material, he raised a body of armed tribesmen, and rapidly formed a fairly disciplined and faithful force. Calling to his aid the nawab, or Muhamadan prince, of the neighbouring native state of Bahawalpur, he also established communications with the officer commanding for the durbar of Lahore, Colonel van Cortlandt. On 10 June he received full permission from Lahore to act on his own judgment and responsibility. On the 18th of the same month he routed the rebel troops at Kineyri, near Dehra Gházi Khán. On 3 July, having been joined by Lake, a neighbouring district officer, and further reinforced from Baháwalpur, he inflicted on the enemy a second defeat at Sadusám, in front of Multan. The Diwán Mulráj fell back upon the town and fort, and never left their shelter until General Whish, with the Bombay column, arrived and invested the place. Edwardes took an active part in the siege that followed, and on 22 Jan. 1849 became the medium of the beaten chief's surrender. The services and sufferings of Agnew and Anderson were commemorated by a monument erected by their colleagues, ‘the surviving assistants,’ and the inscription was from Edwardes's pen.

Edwardes's own share in these occurrences met with swift acknowledgment. H. Lawrence, who had long since returned to India, declared that ‘since the days of Clive no man had done as Edwardes.’ Young, alone, untrained in military science and unversed in active war, he had organised victory and rolled back rebellion. This was, indeed, the high-water mark of Edwardes's life and fortune. Distinguished as were some of his later deeds, it is on this, most of all, that his fame must ever rest. From Sir H. Gough and from the government of India he received prompt and hearty commendation. At the instance of the board of control the queen declared him a brevet major and a companion of the Bath, honours rarely, if ever, attained by any subaltern before, and the East India Company presented him with a gold medal, struck specially for the purpose, of which the mould was immediately destroyed. In January 1850 he returned to England, and there found himself the lion of the hour. He was warmly received in his native county of Shropshire. From the university of Oxford he received the degree of D.C.L. In London and at Liverpool he was publicly entertained, and exhibited on both occasions a gift of ready and graceful oratory. In July he married Emma, daughter of James Sidney of Richmond. Before the end of the year he brought out his book, ‘A Year on the Punjab Frontier,’ in